I know...I know...we haven't even celebrated Halloween yet and I am here talking about Christmas. The reason behind this is because I realized after having gone back and reviewing my blog posts I never got around to discussing the new family tradition that we adopted in preparation for Gen's first Christmas. We have decided to give only three--yes you heard me THREE--gifts to each other and our child(ren). Here is our reasoning behind this. Eric and I both grew up in families where there wasn't much emphasis placed on the real reason behind celebrating Christmas and that is CHRIST. I knew even before I was married that I wanted to change this--I think we as a society have comercialized Christmas into being all about presents--I wanted to make sure our child(ren) knew and understood why we celebrated such a special time of year. I came across a blog that mentioned that they went by the three gifts of Christmas based upon the three gifts the wise men gave to Jesus on the night of his birth. I loved the idea because a) it makes the gifts actually meaningful b) you aren't buying your child everything under the sun and c) you get to share with your child the beautiful birth of Jesus the Christ and how special the gifts that were given to him and how they had such great meaning. I tweaked how our gifts were categorized based on different people's interpretation (and mine as well) of the gifts but they go as follows:
Gold-a gift of wonder (or as I interpret it a gift of fun such as toys)
Frankincense-a gift of meaning (something that is special and meaningful such as a book or quilt or memory book)
Myrrh-a gift of usefulness (i.e. clothing, new shoes, new coat)
Gen will most likely be getting a playset for the back yard as her gift of Gold and more than likely clothes for her gift of Myrrh but we will be thinking really hard about her Frankincense gift. Oh and if you were wondering yes we will still be exchanging gifts with family and friends so this only applies to our little family of three. Gen will still be able to get gifts from her grandparents and others but we feel like we should make it a priority to put CHRIST back into CHRISTmas for us and our child(ren).
